I'm looking to build up a rabid set for a tanky WvW condition build - I haven't decided on the exact build yet but what gear are people running?

Looking for a breakdown of armor, weapons, runes, accessories, jewels.

Many thanks

If you're looking for Rabid (Malice/Toughness, Precision), then TA and CM dungeon weapons and armour have those stats. Exotic trinkets are much harder to come by because they are rare drops and the recipes to craft them are just silly hard to obtain.

Go to the wiki and look up "list of armor sets" and find the named ones (Zhed's, Rurik's, Shiro's, etc). Search those for a set with rabid stats. I use Galrath's on my warrior, took ~20g but worth it for the stats and not having to wait around for groups for dungeon runs. As for weapons, search the trading post using filters to search for an exotic weapon of whatever kind you need, level 80, and just look for one with rabid stats. Although for weapons, doing dungeons might not be so bad. I used Alderune's Last Stand (sword) and Jora's Shield for my warrior, each were around 3g.

For jewelry, yeah you're kinda boned unless you want to farm TA/CM and one of the other dungeons for the recipes to make rabid jewelry, or pay ridiculous prices for that jewelry. Otherwise, just stick with rampager I'd say, or go carrion if you're concerned with low health. Alternatively, you could try berserkers to diversify a little if your weapon set has skills with good damage/power coefficients.

Go to the wiki and look up "list of armor sets" and find the named ones (Zhed's, Rurik's, Shiro's, etc). Search those for a set with rabid stats. I use Galrath's on my warrior, took ~20g but worth it for the stats and not having to wait around for groups for dungeon runs. As for weapons, search the trading post using filters to search for an exotic weapon of whatever kind you need, level 80, and just look for one with rabid stats. Although for weapons, doing dungeons might not be so bad. I used Alderune's Last Stand (sword) and Jora's Shield for my warrior, each were around 3g.

For jewelry, yeah you're kinda boned unless you want to farm TA/CM and one of the other dungeons for the recipes to make rabid jewelry, or pay ridiculous prices for that jewelry. Otherwise, just stick with rampager I'd say, or go carrion if you're concerned with low health. Alternatively, you could try berserkers to diversify a little if your weapon set has skills with good damage/power coefficients.

There are Rare-quality Rabid trinkets and Spineguard, if you are willing to settle for those.

I say this because in wvw not only do you want to apply conditions on as many people as possible but you want to apply as many different conditions as possible so that they cannot be easily removed.

I know the Engineer & necro shine at this but have no idea how well the mesmer does it.

Confusion/Glamour Spam Mesmer with the 20/0/0/20/30 build (look up kylia glamour build on youtube) with as much rabid gear as you can stack, in combination with a tanky melee team is beastly in WvW. Tons of confusion, blind, and ethereal combo fields everywhere.

Confusion/Glamour Spam Mesmer with the 20/0/0/20/30 build (look up kylia glamour build on youtube) with as much rabid gear as you can stack, in combination with a tanky melee team is beastly in WvW. Tons of confusion, blind, and ethereal combo fields everywhere.

Well... I still don't get the point of using Rabid gear for this build. Without Sharper Images, the Precision from Rabid does absolutely nothing. You're better off with Shaman's if you want Toughness, or go Carrion for more overall damage.

Well... I still don't get the point of using Rabid gear for this build. Without Sharper Images, the Precision from Rabid does absolutely nothing. You're better off with Shaman's if you want Toughness, or go Carrion for more overall damage.

How does Carrion do more overall damage than Rabid? Does power contribute more than precision in some unforseen way? My understanding is that they both contribute equally little to this build.

The point is, absolute maximum condition damage followed by toughness as a secondary stat, because when running in a large group with a high regen uptime I find that Toughness > Vitality.

Rabid gear is the only set that satisfies those criteria. Ideally, if there was a condition damage + toughness + vitality gear, I would run with that for WvW.

Edit: Another two reasons you want Rabid > Carrion

- Master tuning crystals take more from toughness than vitality - The six set bonus from the Superior Undead Runes set (which I forgot to mention in the original post).

How does Carrion do more overall damage than Rabid? Does power contribute more than precision in some unforseen way? My understanding is that they both contribute equally little to this build.

The point is, absolute maximum condition damage followed by toughness as a secondary stat, because when running in a large group with a high regen uptime I find that Toughness > Vitality.

Rabid gear is the only set that satisfies those criteria. Ideally, if there was a condition damage + toughness + vitality gear, I would run with that for WvW.

Edit: Another two reasons you want Rabid > Carrion

- Master tuning crystals take more from toughness than vitality- The six set bonus from the Superior Undead Runes set (which I forgot to mention in the original post).

You're narrowing your mind needlessly. Power equals more damage from your regular attacks and that of your phantasms, while Precision without Power and Crit Damage or on-crit effects is utterly pointless.

As for Master Tuning Crystals, at full exotic Rabid you gain 520 Toughness, which equates to 31.2 Condition Damage (i.e. 6% of Toughness). That's 2.34 extra Confusion damage per stack per activation (i.e. Confusion damage coefficient is estimated to 7.5%). Comparatively, 520 Vitality contributes to 20.4 extra Condition Damage from Master Tuning Crystals, or 1.53 Confusion damage. That's a difference of 0.81 damage per activation per stack. I'd wager that the damage gained from 520 Power outweighs that minuscule loss in Confusion damage.

You're narrowing your mind needlessly. Power equals more damage from your regular attacks and that of your phantasms, while Precision without Power and Crit Damage or on-crit effects is utterly pointless.

As for Master Tuning Crystals, at full exotic Rabid you gain 520 Toughness, which equates to 31.2 Condition Damage (i.e. 6% of Toughness). That's 2.34 extra Confusion damage per stack per activation (i.e. Confusion damage coefficient is estimated to 7.5%). Comparatively, 520 Vitality contributes to 20.4 extra Condition Damage from Master Tuning Crystals, or 1.53 Confusion damage. That's a difference of 0.81 damage per activation per stack. I'd wager that the damage gained from 520 Power outweighs that minuscule loss in Confusion damage.

Nice maths, good point, if it is correct.I still prefer toughness, for all the other reasons I gave.It's everyone's own decision at the end of the day, this works well for me.

These are now the best way to get exotic rabid trinkets etc... previously you had to buy the exotic crafted (with the recipes being ultra rare dungeon drops) stuff off the TP which could go for up to 20g. e.g. http://www.gw2db.com...ms/72071-plague

42000 karma by comparison is a no brainer. If you have to, guest on a busy server that's got the temple claimed.